Rob, your post on indicating was excellent - even if we still disagree on that one.

Not as good as something with a lower CofG though, all other things being equal The point is that if you're driving at a brisk but safe speed in your Tucson and a V12V overtakes you going 10mph faster with an HPC friend on board, you're not going to think nasty thoughts about that driver, because you have sufficient insight into both cars It's the lack of that insight that I was referring to.

Thanks for the compliment. We'll all have a different opinion on these things, which is great. The important thing is that we've thought about it independently and intelligently, which I know you have, which is why I respect your opinion. I have no respect for people who just follow what's written in a dusty old book without questioning it (oops - I nearly got on my soap box and went off topic then! ).

Indeed. I overtook a smaller SUV with a canoe on top, this morning. He wasn't really the problem, that was the XC90 up ahead that was barely even dawdling but which I knew he wouldn't overtake. I also foresaw that there was going to be a colossal faff about the fact that there was a skip lorry coming the other way. My car is tiny so I wasn't going to have a problem and I passed both of them with plenty of time to make sure the skip lorry had seen me and we were both positioned to pass one another at a reasonable speed.

Canoe top accelerated for some reason. Then followed me into my car park where he made a big deal about getting out and having a good look around for me before giving up and buggering off.

Presumably: Overtaking is dangerous and antisocial and to ensure that I understood as much he did his best to make it as dangerous as possible (which actually didn't even amount to 'at all') and when that failed made an attempt to catch up with me presumably to force his opinion on me with volume, posturing, perhaps threats of or even actual violence.

Twice in the past year or so I've been chased by an irate motorist after I've overtaken them serenely and safely. The last occurrence was only last week - he was in a big Nissan leaf sprung thing and I was doing about 45mph when I passed him in an NSL. He hooted, flashed extensively, and sped up to chase me. People are absolutely nuts. I haven't overtaken anyone since. Needless to say, I just legged it through the twisties and lost him in a mile or two, but my point is I shouldn't have to!

I get it quite often. I work at quite a large place with a few thousand people on site. Many of them come the same way as me and the last couple of miles is NSL back-road. Many of these live quite close by and 'bad traffic' for them represents a ten minute journey to work rather than five. Therefore, there's no need for them to bother accelerating briskly for the admittedly relatively brief periods when you can actually maintain a reasonable speed.

This I can appreciate and understand. However, I live 40 miles away and have to spend much of it on the godawful A12, or the equally godawful A130 and A127 and 'bad traffic' for me can mean hours or even 'turn round and go home there's no point even trying'. Therefore, whenever I have an opportunity to go quickly I like to take it.

Apparently, this is something some simply can't or don't want to understand and appreciate and sometimes if you overtake the same person more than once they tend to like to be idiots. That's fine as well. I only ever take the opportunity if it's actually on. If they are able to make it dangerous for me and someone who may come the other way or if there's limited advantage I don't tend to bother. Plus, when they see that you're actually going to the same destination and they consider whether what they're comfortable with shouting inside a metal box isn't actually what they're comfortable communicating face to face many tend to simmer down a touch.

Anybody who is still likely to get all shouty and pushy is probably just a nutter and there's no telling what you might have done to set them off even if you hadn't overtaken them.

Needless to say, I just legged it through the twisties and lost him in a mile or two, but my point is I shouldn't have to!

Moreover, if your 'rate of progress' had been clocked by our friends in uniform, you'd have been in bother.

I get this occasionally too - it's the whole 'alpha male' bullst usually. Worst one recently was about 2 months ago - I was overtaking on a wide trunk road with oncoming traffic keeping left as usual (>4 cars wide, straight for ~3/4 mile with a dip in the middle improving visibility, safest place for 4-5 miles in either dir'n, plenty of people overtake there...and of course that's where the camera van sometimes sits...). Anyway, mid-overtake of a large truck I had a full-sized artic coming the other way actually swerve towards the middle of the road as I approached. If we'd made contact I'd have been a nasty smear on the road...

Needless to say, I just legged it through the twisties and lost him in a mile or two, but my point is I shouldn't have to!

Moreover, if your 'rate of progress' had been clocked by our friends in uniform, you'd have been in bother.

I get this occasionally too - it's the whole 'alpha male' bullst usually. Worst one recently was about 2 months ago - I was overtaking on a wide trunk road with oncoming traffic keeping left as usual (>4 cars wide, straight for ~3/4 mile with a dip in the middle improving visibility, safest place for 4-5 miles in either dir'n, plenty of people overtake there...and of course that's where the camera van sometimes sits...). Anyway, mid-overtake of a large truck I had a full-sized artic coming the other way actually swerve towards the middle of the road as I approached. If we'd made contact I'd have been a nasty smear on the road...

Yes; I made the decision that provided I was safe, I'd rather have a conviction for dangerous driving than a crow bar shaped imprint in my head and all over my car. I drove at the minimum speed necessary to lose him. My main worry was that this idiot would land on his roof trying to follow me in his wobbly 4x4.

I've had the swerving thing too. This guy that I mentioned above switched his indicator on just before I was alongside - there were no entrances to the right and nothing in front of him, so I just continued (not that I had much choice - I was almost on his three quarter at the time); I think he was trying to stop me. I've since played back the incident from my dashcam to verify this - I also checked that I moved out early, minimised the closing speed, that there was room and I gave him room etc and yes, it all checks out. I've had people physically swerve to the wrong side of the road too to block me in the past, even on dual carriageways, especially when they turn to one lane up ahead.

I think that 80%+ of drivers try to stop anyone overtaking them. I see them every day doing 40 in an NSL, unless someone tries to overtake and then they're quickly doing 80.

I overtook a pickup pulling a large trailer the other day, the trailer was full of rubbish and had two large ladders bouncing about unrestrained, so overtaking was a no brainer, but the passenger gave me all sort of abuse at the next set of lights, I just looked at her squarely in the rear view mirror and shook my head. The overtake was never about racing ahead, it was about not taking a ladder through my windscreen at 45mph.

I think that 80%+ of drivers try to stop anyone overtaking them. I see them every day doing 40 in an NSL, unless someone tries to overtake and then they're quickly doing 80.

I overtook a pickup pulling a large trailer the other day, the trailer was full of rubbish and had two large ladders bouncing about unrestrained, so overtaking was a no brainer, but the passenger gave me all sort of abuse at the next set of lights, I just looked at her squarely in the rear view mirror and shook my head. The overtake was never about racing ahead, it was about not taking a ladder through my windscreen at 45mph.

I had a strange moment on a two lane motorway sliproad on Wednesday coming home from work. A van was in lane 1 doing about 40-50mph I guess, and I was doing 60 in lane 2, accelerating up to 70. I passed him without a second thought, but the second I did he started flashing me like crazy. I watched it again on my dashcam to check when I got home and yep, I was right: empty sliproad, at least 200m long and I overtook on the dash lines where there are clearly two lanes and with no issues at all. He was well in his lane and so was I. He wasn't indicating or showing any signs of using lane 2. I joined the motorway quite a long way ahead of him. He later came past me shaking his head and gesticulating! People are weird..

For most people the following are seen as signs of aggression, when in actual fact they're not:

Using the hornOvertakingDriving quickly

They need to stop projecting their own world view onto other people and instead listen and understand things a bit better. If they drove quickly or overtook someone it would be aggressive on their part, which is why they don't do it. They shouldn't then assume when they see someone else driving quickly that they're driving aggressively, that person might be quite relaxed, but just driving a more capable car and/or have a better standard of driving. With the SUV craze now fully in swing, the more capable car issue I mentioned there is certainly prevalent; there are plenty of empty roads with good visibility that I'd drive my modified 3 series down at 60mph where I wouldn't go over 40mph in a big wobbly SUV. People think everything handles, stops and goes like their Hyundai Tucson, that's the problem!

With any communication, the outcome is not what the sender intends to convey, but how the receiver perceives it. That is, was, and ever will be.

His family live in Bristol and one member of his family owned a new Golf diesel.

Now as you might know Bristol is a little hilly and in a few places while driving my friend around he noticed that the car was stuttering a lot and really feeling like there was something wrong.

Then it clicked. He watched change gears as he pulled form some lights and he simply got into top gear ASAP and stayed there, no matter what! roundabouts, hills, anything, unless the car was doing about 5 mph top gear was all t was seeing.

And when quizzed, he was astounded to learn this is what his driving instructor told him to do! (Which I somehow doubt)